User Reviews by KVR Members for Largo
I've always been a bit of a Waldorf fan, who aren't, so i downed the demo of Largo, played around, found some great synth presets, and was sold. I bought it shortly after, full of joy and ready to play with my new toy, i unlocked the fancy synth and tweaked like hell, and from that point on, all the flaws came to the surface.
The sound is trying so hard to sound clear, that it most of the times sounds thin, and when you fiddle with EQs and stuff to calm it down, it sounds muddy and dumbly. In the pro side of the story most be the great widening unison, which raises it all up again.
I really love the possibilities to make wide bass sounds perfect for Electro and House things, but it gets hard to pick Largo from the synth pool when you get reminded by it's all so terrible tired interface, everything is slow, and it's killing your creativity. The arp feature is great, but not when you move the mouse and have to wait few ms for the slider or knob to follow your strokes.
It's packed with presets, a lot sounds good, but never really good enough, only few really stands out, and those are hard to find, as the browser really is not what a browser should be, and thats easy to use. There's no way other than searching for the word "bass" to find the bass presets, and the main preset browsing window is a big bucket of weird words with only few hints of what you could expect to hear.
Yeah, i know i sound a bit grumpy, but i am also a bit disappointed, but enough about that, lets look on all the good things.
3 OSC with a lot of waves to choose from and good balancing between them. Two great Waldorf approved filters, even though i suspect them to be the reason for the kinda harsh sound of largo (ups, i did it again), but they too have nice features like drive and nice envelope control.
The effect section is great, if the unison fails, the chorus will do the job, and it has to effect slots to fill, so when you realize that the reverb is useless, there's room enough for the sweat overdrive.
I guess Waldorf somehow made the perfect sound designable synth, the matrix section opens a world wide of options, and that leads me to the final words. Largo is great for synth geeks happy to use more than the normal amount of time on tweaking, but Largo is not for preset riders and producers who hate all too digitally sounding synths.
The sound is trying so hard to sound clear, that it most of the times sounds thin, and when you fiddle with EQs and stuff to calm it down, it sounds muddy and dumbly. In the pro side of the story most be the great widening unison, which raises it all up again.
I really love the possibilities to make wide bass sounds perfect for Electro and House things, but it gets hard to pick Largo from the synth pool when you get reminded by it's all so terrible tired interface, everything is slow, and it's killing your creativity. The arp feature is great, but not when you move the mouse and have to wait few ms for the slider or knob to follow your strokes.
It's packed with presets, a lot sounds good, but never really good enough, only few really stands out, and those are hard to find, as the browser really is not what a browser should be, and thats easy to use. There's no way other than searching for the word "bass" to find the bass presets, and the main preset browsing window is a big bucket of weird words with only few hints of what you could expect to hear.
Yeah, i know i sound a bit grumpy, but i am also a bit disappointed, but enough about that, lets look on all the good things.
3 OSC with a lot of waves to choose from and good balancing between them. Two great Waldorf approved filters, even though i suspect them to be the reason for the kinda harsh sound of largo (ups, i did it again), but they too have nice features like drive and nice envelope control.
The effect section is great, if the unison fails, the chorus will do the job, and it has to effect slots to fill, so when you realize that the reverb is useless, there's room enough for the sweat overdrive.
I guess Waldorf somehow made the perfect sound designable synth, the matrix section opens a world wide of options, and that leads me to the final words. Largo is great for synth geeks happy to use more than the normal amount of time on tweaking, but Largo is not for preset riders and producers who hate all too digitally sounding synths.
Reviewed By ariston on 26th February 2011
OS: Version: 1.5.1. Last edited by ariston on 2nd March 2011.
It's interesting that this is my first review for KVR, as I own and frequently use a bunch of soft synths, but Largo really impressed me. It's got oodles of character, nearly unlimited options for sound design, some of the best (software) filters around, and manages to be fairly unique in a field where it's hard for products to stand out from the crowd.
User Interface:
Largo looks great – it's got a very sleek, professional, metallic look that's unobtrusive and easy-on-the-eye. I also feel that the look reflects the character of the synth well. The layout follows the typical soft synth workflow – Oscillators to the left, filters to the right, modulations and FX at the bottom. While I enjoy working with this UI, there are some awkward points to it: first off, it's a little sluggish. There's a bit of lag when turning knobs, switching windows, and adjusting values. I found the decision to make some knobs smaller/larger than others a bit counter-intuitive in places. The mod matrix is a tad too small when compared to the rest – I found myself squinting a bit when I used it. Lastly, it's a mixture of knobs and numerical values, which is a tepid compromise, if serviceable. Overall, though, I found that working with this interface is fun and fast.
Sound:
The most important part, right? Well, there's been some controversy regarding the sound of Largo. Some hate it, some love it. And then there's those who'll contend that any synth that is capable of deep sound design doesn't have a “sound” - they claim it's up the user. I belong in the camp of believers in a synth's character. Largo is definitely special. Starting with the Oscillators, which offer the usual, plus a load of high-quality wavetables – a Waldorf trademark (AFAIK, all the PPG and Q tables are there). These raw materials already sound great by themselves and will keep you entertained for quite a while. Get to the filters, though, and Largo really begins to shine. They have a real bite to them, and the resonance can wreak some splendid havoc on your sounds. There are 8 drive types for the filters (I think the Blofeld has more, but maybe they'll update it at some point) which can add subtle to all-out distortion to your sound. The bass boost is there, as well - a lot of Largo's power in this area comes from this innocuous button. The effects sound great, as well. While many synths feature unison, I was quite unprepared for what would happen when I switched it on in Largo – the sound grew in density in a way that left me speechless. “Huge” does not begin to describe it.
Overall, I love the sound of Largo – it's very much got a digital quality, but it can be anything from warm to cold, biting to soft, or grimy to clean. It's actually very easy to steer it into down-n-dirty territory, so if that's your cup of tea, you really should give it a go. This synth can really GROWL, but it can purr just as well.
Features:
You can read about these in the specs on Waldorf's website, but I'll mention a few things that caught my eye: Largo offers 4-way multitimbrality. That's 4 synths in one. Yes, you can layer your synths in your host, no problem, but for sound design purposes, this is quite a boon. Each layer has three oscillators, two of which feature full wavetable compatibility and a sub osc. You have ring mod, FM, and sync at your disposal, and your oscillators can be freely routed to the two filters, which can function either in serial or parallel mode. There's a big mod matrix that also features some simple mathematical procedures like “add”, “subtract”, “and/or” etc... - there are a handful of modular synths that are naturally more flexible in this regard, but I think that Largo has more than enough potential here. 3 LFOs, 4 envelopes, a neat arpeggiator and an FX section (chorus, flanger, phaser, delay, overdrive and reverb) round it up. Honorable mention goes to the envelopes – these are among the best I've used on a soft synth. They offer an advanced ADSR, one-shot and loop functionality, and the attack is lightning-quick.
The UI also features a few sliders for often-used functions, like FM and wave amount – so you don't have to use the mod matrix for every single tweak, which is a nice touch.
Two gripes: setting up the arpeggiator is a bit fiddly. It would also be nice to be able to save your settings.
Bottom line: there are huge possibilities for sound design.
Docs:
...are there in English and German. Short and to the point, with some humor thrown in for good measure. There are also quite a few neat tips and tricks in there, so it's really worth checking out.
Presets:
Largo currently offers over 700 presets. They're well-hidden in the unnecessarily obfuscated browser, which could so with an update. They do a good job of showing the synth's capabilities, and are of a high quality throughout. I especially like the soundscape/atmosphere-type of sounds. Although I rarely use presets, some of these are very inspiring.
Customer Support:
I have never had to use it, so no comment here.
Value for money:
This is always hard to judge. There are a few synths that have similar specs and are cheaper. I will still give this a high rank, though, simply because Largo is unique – I can get sounds out of it that are simply not possible with my other synths. It's one of a select few that can easily inspire me – and cranking those filters into the red zone gives me goosebumps every time. So, yeah, definitely worth it.
Stability: Granite-solid in Live 8.2.1 and Reaper.
Two more remarks in closing: I evaluated Largo for a month before making my decision (which, btw, is a very generous, uncrippled demo period). I didn't really feel that I needed yet another synth. In the end, though, I was utterly convinced. And lastly, I have to point out that this synth can really tax your cpu. If you don't own a fairly modern computer, you might get into snap, crackle and pop territory faster than you'd like, so demo it before you buy.
User Interface:
Largo looks great – it's got a very sleek, professional, metallic look that's unobtrusive and easy-on-the-eye. I also feel that the look reflects the character of the synth well. The layout follows the typical soft synth workflow – Oscillators to the left, filters to the right, modulations and FX at the bottom. While I enjoy working with this UI, there are some awkward points to it: first off, it's a little sluggish. There's a bit of lag when turning knobs, switching windows, and adjusting values. I found the decision to make some knobs smaller/larger than others a bit counter-intuitive in places. The mod matrix is a tad too small when compared to the rest – I found myself squinting a bit when I used it. Lastly, it's a mixture of knobs and numerical values, which is a tepid compromise, if serviceable. Overall, though, I found that working with this interface is fun and fast.
Sound:
The most important part, right? Well, there's been some controversy regarding the sound of Largo. Some hate it, some love it. And then there's those who'll contend that any synth that is capable of deep sound design doesn't have a “sound” - they claim it's up the user. I belong in the camp of believers in a synth's character. Largo is definitely special. Starting with the Oscillators, which offer the usual, plus a load of high-quality wavetables – a Waldorf trademark (AFAIK, all the PPG and Q tables are there). These raw materials already sound great by themselves and will keep you entertained for quite a while. Get to the filters, though, and Largo really begins to shine. They have a real bite to them, and the resonance can wreak some splendid havoc on your sounds. There are 8 drive types for the filters (I think the Blofeld has more, but maybe they'll update it at some point) which can add subtle to all-out distortion to your sound. The bass boost is there, as well - a lot of Largo's power in this area comes from this innocuous button. The effects sound great, as well. While many synths feature unison, I was quite unprepared for what would happen when I switched it on in Largo – the sound grew in density in a way that left me speechless. “Huge” does not begin to describe it.
Overall, I love the sound of Largo – it's very much got a digital quality, but it can be anything from warm to cold, biting to soft, or grimy to clean. It's actually very easy to steer it into down-n-dirty territory, so if that's your cup of tea, you really should give it a go. This synth can really GROWL, but it can purr just as well.
Features:
You can read about these in the specs on Waldorf's website, but I'll mention a few things that caught my eye: Largo offers 4-way multitimbrality. That's 4 synths in one. Yes, you can layer your synths in your host, no problem, but for sound design purposes, this is quite a boon. Each layer has three oscillators, two of which feature full wavetable compatibility and a sub osc. You have ring mod, FM, and sync at your disposal, and your oscillators can be freely routed to the two filters, which can function either in serial or parallel mode. There's a big mod matrix that also features some simple mathematical procedures like “add”, “subtract”, “and/or” etc... - there are a handful of modular synths that are naturally more flexible in this regard, but I think that Largo has more than enough potential here. 3 LFOs, 4 envelopes, a neat arpeggiator and an FX section (chorus, flanger, phaser, delay, overdrive and reverb) round it up. Honorable mention goes to the envelopes – these are among the best I've used on a soft synth. They offer an advanced ADSR, one-shot and loop functionality, and the attack is lightning-quick.
The UI also features a few sliders for often-used functions, like FM and wave amount – so you don't have to use the mod matrix for every single tweak, which is a nice touch.
Two gripes: setting up the arpeggiator is a bit fiddly. It would also be nice to be able to save your settings.
Bottom line: there are huge possibilities for sound design.
Docs:
...are there in English and German. Short and to the point, with some humor thrown in for good measure. There are also quite a few neat tips and tricks in there, so it's really worth checking out.
Presets:
Largo currently offers over 700 presets. They're well-hidden in the unnecessarily obfuscated browser, which could so with an update. They do a good job of showing the synth's capabilities, and are of a high quality throughout. I especially like the soundscape/atmosphere-type of sounds. Although I rarely use presets, some of these are very inspiring.
Customer Support:
I have never had to use it, so no comment here.
Value for money:
This is always hard to judge. There are a few synths that have similar specs and are cheaper. I will still give this a high rank, though, simply because Largo is unique – I can get sounds out of it that are simply not possible with my other synths. It's one of a select few that can easily inspire me – and cranking those filters into the red zone gives me goosebumps every time. So, yeah, definitely worth it.
Stability: Granite-solid in Live 8.2.1 and Reaper.
Two more remarks in closing: I evaluated Largo for a month before making my decision (which, btw, is a very generous, uncrippled demo period). I didn't really feel that I needed yet another synth. In the end, though, I was utterly convinced. And lastly, I have to point out that this synth can really tax your cpu. If you don't own a fairly modern computer, you might get into snap, crackle and pop territory faster than you'd like, so demo it before you buy.
User Interface: 10/10
I have no doubts whatsoever in giving the UI of Largo full score simply because it has the best looking and easy to use UI i have ever come across in any Vsti.Everything is well laid out and placed for the user to feel comfortable straight from the off.
Also whoever graphically designed Largo's UI deserves no end of praise for their excellent acheivement.
Sound: 10/10
Personally i have always loved the Waldorf sound whether it be their hardware or software.
Features: 10/10
Where do i start?I can't give an 11/10 so again Largo scores full marks for the vast amount of features it has:
3 Oscillators per layer, 2 Sub Oscs per layer + 0/2/3/4/5/6 Voice Unisono per layer giving you 18 Oscs per layer in 6 Voice Unisono mode and if your using 4 layers then you have a massive 72 voice monster whilst in multi-mode.
Next up there are 3 Lfo's,FM on every Oscillator(assignable)Ring Mod/Noise/4 Band EQ with Q/Bass Boost/A modulation matrix to die for(anything is assignable here)Arpeggiator per layer(great for drum programming)also i must mention that all envelopes i.e Filter Env/Amp Env/Env 3/Env 4 have excellent looping features.The Filter sections with Largo are some of the best iv'e heard on any hard/software ever.The resonance filters are tremendous.
I could go on but then i have'nt enough space to list what Largo can do so you'll have to take my word that it can do so so much.
FX 1 Chorus Flanger Phaser Overdrive:
FX 2 Chorus Flanger Phaser Overdrive Delay Reverb
The Fx section in Largo espescially the Phaser and Delay are great and of high quality.
Documentation: 10/10
Well written English/German easy to understand..
Presets: 10/10
The presets that come with Largo are very well designed and to high standard and show just what this synth is capable of producing and the sound designers at Waldorf have made very good use of the wavetables within Largo.I would have liked there to have been a way for users to import their own wavetables but the ones that come supplied are of excellent quality.
Customer Support: 9/10
Iv'e only had to contact customer support once and my concern was dealt with very promptly within 2hrs.
Value For Money: 10/10
For me Largo is excellent value for money because it does what i want it to do with no false pretences.Your getting a top piece of software here for under £180 gbp with features that simply are outstanding.You will have to fork out for a dongle if you want to use Largo on other computers.I wish there had been a demo available along with the official release just so potential users could try before they buy however i hear there is a demo in the pipeline and when released will back up this review.
Stability: 9/10
Well in the 2 weeks iv'e owned Largo i have had only one crash and that was when i was trying to save a program created within Largo.Waldorf are aware of this problem and im informed that this has been fixed and will be available in the next update.(I feel a 9/10 is fair)
Other than that Largo has been rock solid in Sonar 8pe and Cubase 5.1 although i can't speak for any other apps.
For me this is the most stable V 1.0 of any soft synth iv'e owned.
Overall Waldorf Largo is one of my most valuable pieces of music making software.Sound design possibilitie's are endless and stability is excellent for this being a version 1.0
I hope this review has been of some use to potential/future users of this software because you really must give it a try and see what it has to offer..
all the best to waldorf and everybody involved for bringing us Largo!
Best
Rob Lee
I have no doubts whatsoever in giving the UI of Largo full score simply because it has the best looking and easy to use UI i have ever come across in any Vsti.Everything is well laid out and placed for the user to feel comfortable straight from the off.
Also whoever graphically designed Largo's UI deserves no end of praise for their excellent acheivement.
Sound: 10/10
Personally i have always loved the Waldorf sound whether it be their hardware or software.
Features: 10/10
Where do i start?I can't give an 11/10 so again Largo scores full marks for the vast amount of features it has:
3 Oscillators per layer, 2 Sub Oscs per layer + 0/2/3/4/5/6 Voice Unisono per layer giving you 18 Oscs per layer in 6 Voice Unisono mode and if your using 4 layers then you have a massive 72 voice monster whilst in multi-mode.
Next up there are 3 Lfo's,FM on every Oscillator(assignable)Ring Mod/Noise/4 Band EQ with Q/Bass Boost/A modulation matrix to die for(anything is assignable here)Arpeggiator per layer(great for drum programming)also i must mention that all envelopes i.e Filter Env/Amp Env/Env 3/Env 4 have excellent looping features.The Filter sections with Largo are some of the best iv'e heard on any hard/software ever.The resonance filters are tremendous.
I could go on but then i have'nt enough space to list what Largo can do so you'll have to take my word that it can do so so much.
FX 1 Chorus Flanger Phaser Overdrive:
FX 2 Chorus Flanger Phaser Overdrive Delay Reverb
The Fx section in Largo espescially the Phaser and Delay are great and of high quality.
Documentation: 10/10
Well written English/German easy to understand..
Presets: 10/10
The presets that come with Largo are very well designed and to high standard and show just what this synth is capable of producing and the sound designers at Waldorf have made very good use of the wavetables within Largo.I would have liked there to have been a way for users to import their own wavetables but the ones that come supplied are of excellent quality.
Customer Support: 9/10
Iv'e only had to contact customer support once and my concern was dealt with very promptly within 2hrs.
Value For Money: 10/10
For me Largo is excellent value for money because it does what i want it to do with no false pretences.Your getting a top piece of software here for under £180 gbp with features that simply are outstanding.You will have to fork out for a dongle if you want to use Largo on other computers.I wish there had been a demo available along with the official release just so potential users could try before they buy however i hear there is a demo in the pipeline and when released will back up this review.
Stability: 9/10
Well in the 2 weeks iv'e owned Largo i have had only one crash and that was when i was trying to save a program created within Largo.Waldorf are aware of this problem and im informed that this has been fixed and will be available in the next update.(I feel a 9/10 is fair)
Other than that Largo has been rock solid in Sonar 8pe and Cubase 5.1 although i can't speak for any other apps.
For me this is the most stable V 1.0 of any soft synth iv'e owned.
Overall Waldorf Largo is one of my most valuable pieces of music making software.Sound design possibilitie's are endless and stability is excellent for this being a version 1.0
I hope this review has been of some use to potential/future users of this software because you really must give it a try and see what it has to offer..
all the best to waldorf and everybody involved for bringing us Largo!
Best
Rob Lee
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